it led to a conversation (part two)
steve roggenbuck:
hazel thank you for your repsonse. i think youre wrong, i think there is a lot of depth behind what i make—not in every specific post, but in the collected effort, and in certain posts like my newest video — and the feedback i get from pe…ople every day confirms that to me
yes i like marketing a lot— my heroes are lil b, the buddha, and walt whitman. they are people who not only developed their art/ideas but worked hard to spread them and get them to people. the only way that art matters to me is if people actualy receive it and it makes them feel better or more alive
i kno my loudness annoys some people —i have some friends like Andrew Edminister & Elias Van Son who criticized me similarly to your criticisms and later realized the depth behind my effort and started suporting me. but i think i am just this way, i have to be true to my personalty, i am bombastic and happy, ive tried to become more polite about it ,but hazel i am jsut so excited
when i say i love u in this context, i just mean it in an unconditional way and as a nonviolent gesture.i love every one on earth. even tho youre blog posts hurt me, i’m not going to hate you or lash back. i’d rather understand you, learn from u if possible, and not be enemies. your long response has helped me understand some at least
me:
honey, you’re good at what you do, but manipulation is manipulation. you have a goal, and it is clear from your actions that your goal is attention, for everyone to “love” you, and to keep growing your name. but there is no substance. and you bring up money pretty often. you obviously want to get paid for this rubbish. you might fool a lot of people, but not as many as you think.
you have turned yourself into a living meme, and it’s sad. sugar, if you have so much energy and positivity, and it really is about art, put all of that into a project and finish something that can stand on its own. your defense is that the overall mess of your scatter shot aggressive marketing is your art? well i say, as passionately as any of your youtube videos, that you are not an artist. you and your clan are the herpes of facebook. seriously. i am sure you will continue to reach new people through here that don’t know who you are, and they will see your antics and think you are amusing. they will friend you and like your posts, share your videos, and then you and your “movement” will spread to more unsuspecting teenagers and twenty-somethings. i saw you around the internet for a while before we interacted, and for a time i too thought some of the things you were doing was worth my attention, but then the curtain was pulled away and i saw you and your friends “work” for what it is. worthless.
you are a joke. your art is a joke. if you don’t want that to be the case then do something, one thing, that stands on its own, that isn’t overshadowed by your marketing campaign. spend all of that energy and excitement on one idea. make a choice and stand by it.
but why would you? as the tide turns and you lose fans and collaborators, more will take their place. as people realize how meaningless your work is, new people will find out about you and be coaxed in with your “i love you”s and your “live your lief”s and “i support everything you do bb”s and all of you will continue to foster work that is mediocre at best and flood the market with worthless art. that sounds lonely to me, and meaningless, and sad.
i wish more people would just call you on your bullshit instead of just unfriending you. you have no idea how many private messages i have received saying, “yeah, i had to block that guy. he is annoying as shit” or “i just unfriended him” or “thank you for saying something, because he’s annoying,” and these are all people who used to like your status updates and post your videos.
you’re the only one who can fix you, and you’ve been broken for a while.
good luck.
